Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Hunter for his question. As the member knows, the Albanese government is delivering cheaper energy by energy bill relief in the short term and by more renewable energy in the longer term. That's reflected in the fact—

I'm going to get to you in a minute, mate; just calm down—that the last inflation figures showed energy prices falling by 17.9 per cent in the year, which followed a 5.1 per cent fall and was described as the largest annual fall for electricity on record, something you'd think every member would be pleased about. That is partly due to the Albanese government's energy bill relief.

We've had an alternative policy from the opposition. We had an interview yesterday from our old friend the shadow minister for finance. We always look forward to those interviews. She's one of the more transparent members of the opposition—she always says what she's thinking. She said, 'Subsidies for energy have never been coalition policy.' So the opposition is against a 17.9 per cent drop in electricity prices that was brought about by energy bill relief.

The member for Hunter also asked me about more expensive alternatives. The Leader of the Opposition wants to introduce the most expensive form of energy available—nuclear energy. There have been, as I said the other day, developments since we last sat. The Leader of the Opposition gave a big speech called 'A nuclear powered Australia: could it work?' Based on the substance and detail in that speech, the answer is, 'Not sure, really; we don't really know.' The speech was a great big nothingburger. It was a great big fizzer—no data, no detail.

This comes as report after report shows that the opposition's plan will put energy prices up. Professor Rod Sims said maybe $200 a year. Dr Dylan McConnell said $400 or $500 a year. Dr Roger Dargaville said $1,000 a year. And, of course, we've also seen the report from IEEFA which said $665 a year on average. This comes more than a year after the member for Fairfax said on Q+A: 'We are doing the modelling right now, based on actual data. Based on actual data.' He went on to say, 'We're the one formulating the policy.' Based on real data—based on Hitachi, Westinghouse and Nuscale! I understand the concerns of the member for Fairfax, because Nuscale was then cancelled because it reached $9 billion for one reactor.

Opposition members interjecting—

Do you notice that the opposition don't really like talking about their own policies? Q+A invited him and me on for a debate. I said yes; he said no. He said no, but they're going to get a chance. The parliament has resolved there will be a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear energy, chaired by our friend the member for Hunter, who's going to do an excellent job getting these issues on the table in regions and communities right around Australia. We can't wait for that detail to come out.

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